Budget cuts in Congress would target the needy

Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott is no more a spendthrift than
his fellow Republicans in Congress. But Abbott can see what they
cannot. He can see that what they call savings in the federal budget
would represent a gross injustice to children of Texas.

These are children who depend on child support and much of that
child support is driven by efforts of the Texas attorney general. In
the fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, the state office collected $1.8
billion in child-support money. Much of the funding for the staff in
the Texas attorney general's office that collects child support comes
from the federal government. But those dollars are at risk.

A House bill would cut $4.9 billion for child-support collection
efforts by states. This miserly bill aims to reduce the deficit by $50
billion over five years. It would also restrict food stamp eligibility,
cut student loan programs, and hike costs for Medicaid recipients.

The measure is a face-saving effort by House Republicans, after they
approved billions for pork-barrel projects for their home districts,
including Alaska's famous "bridge to nowhere."

But the bill doesn't make fiscal sense. Every federal dollar spent
on child-support collection in Texas means $6.81 collected. Every
dollar collected from dead-beat parents means a dollar that the public
won't have to pay to help keep these children off the public support
rolls.

Abbott is right when he says that cutting child-support collection
funding is false economy. "I think all Texans agree that Texas children
should not be the target of those budget cuts."

House members who spent wantonly for pet projects now want to pose
as budget-cutters. But those cuts are false savings if they come at the
expense of kids. Abbott knows that as well as the families that would
take the brunt of the proposed cuts.